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Bruce

Don't bash American legal stupidity too much, we Canadians seem to be no better. Check this out?????

Man charged after woman dreamed she was sexually assaulted sues Crown HALIFAX (CP) - A man who was charged after a woman he didn't know dreamed she had been sexually assaulted is suing the Crown for prosecuting him.

A lawsuit filed at Nova Scotia Supreme Court this week claims navy seaman Michel Daigle, who was acquitted of the 1995 charge, was publicly embarrassed and suffered career damage because of the accusation.

In the statement of claim, lawyer Bill Leahey said Daigle "was charged criminally with sexually assaulting a female person who he had never met before in his life, and with whom he had never had any communication of any kind whatsoever."

In the suit, Leahey wrote that police knew the complainant's accusations came from a dream and the Crown should have stopped the case for lack of evidence before it went to trial.

"There was clear videotaped evidence that this woman was drunk, and asleep, and that she dreamed the whole thing. That evidence was ignored and this guy was put through the wringer," Leahey said Tuesday in an interview.

He said the charge went on Daigle's permanent naval record and the damage to his reputation wasn't healed by his acquittal.

At trial, court heard Daigle and the complainant were both put to bed after having too much to drink at a January 1995 party at Canadian Forces Base Halifax. The woman testified she dreamed someone was touching her beneath her underwear and that she awoke to see a strange man leaning over her bed.

Provincial court Judge William Atton acquitted Daigle of the charge and in a rare decision - which was later overturned - ordered the Crown to pay Daigle's legal bill of more than $12,000.

Atton blamed an "inefficient" military police investigation and the Crown's failure to properly review the evidence and withdraw the charge, or order further investigation.

Daigle is suing to keep the money originally awarded him, as well as for general and punitive damages.